Within a messaging network, messages may be delivered from a publisher to a subscriber via message brokers that provide routing of the published message. The brokers are typically located at communication hubs within the network.
Publishers may send messages having a topic. The messages may be delivered to a set of subscribers who have registered their interest in receiving messages having said topic. Typically, the messages may be delivered so that the publishers do not need to know the identity or address of the subscribers.
The subscribers may register with a broker and identify the categories of information they wish receive, and this information is stored at the broker. In publish/subscribe implementations, subscribers specify one or more topic names which represent the information they wish to receive. Publishers assign topic names to messages that they send to the publish/subscriber broker. The broker may use a matching engine to compare the topics of received messages with the stored subscription information for a set of registered subscribers. This comparison determines which subscribers the messages should be forwarded to.